Thursday, January 21, 2010

There's only 2 days until Ryosuke's drama, Hidarime Tantei EYE, airs. Well if you want to be technical on Japan's time it airs tomorrow. And there's the dilemma. With such a short amount of time until the premiere, there aren't any confirmed fansubbers for it. Well there are confirmed fansubbers, but sadly I can't speak Spanish or French.

I wasn't really the biggest fan of the special, since it was almost too boring to watch. The girl that he was working with annoyed me so much. I wish I could have punched her in the face. And Yokoyama Yu generally makes me eyes bleed. Nayama Yuma also guest stars in it. I'm a little iffy about him. Johnny seems to be promoting him like crazy, shoving him in your face every chance he gets. Yuma has his moments were he looks hot so that doesn't bother me too much. But on top of all that Crystal Kay is going to be in it. Who I've hated ever since I started listening to Japanese music.

There's a lot of reasons I'm going to dislike this drama but I'm going to watch it anyway. Because Ryosuke's in it. And I pretty much watch any drama in it with JE boys. Except for Ryusei no Kizuna, I watched 2 episodes before I lost interest.But any chance to see Ryosuke change his shirt.

Is well worth it.

I'm just a little annoyed that people are jumping to sub Code Blue season 2 and Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge. But for the time being I just have to wait until someone announces it on a later day.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

UFA & BS-TBS held a press conference to announce auditions. But not the auditions every Morning Musume fan has been holding their breathe for, for over 2 years. Nope, it's not the Morning Musume 9th generation audition announcement at all. Instead they announced they will be holding auditions in 5 cities to find an actress to stage in Morning Musume's stage play in June.

Well an acting audition, that has nothing to do with a new Morning Musume member at all. Expect that that's exactly what it could mean. Morning Musume is looking for an actress for a stage play, which means she won't only have to be able to act she'll probably have to sing as well. Well let's say this winning girl ends up being a good singer. And let's say this winning girl interacts well with Morning Musume. Then Tsunku could put together that "Hey, this girl will fit together nicely with Morning Musume!" I tend to overanalyze things but this seems in the realm of possibility. I mean Tsunku does seem to make spontaneous decisions. Like when he added LinLin and JunJun and when he formed Coconuts Musume. People should pay close attention to this audition. We might just be seeing the next Morning Musume member in this stage play. You never can tell with Tsunku.

Guardians 4's PV was just released recently. And we have it rather quickly, only about a week after the preview came out.

Guardians 4's Going on PV is a little lack luster for my taste. The only enjoyable or cute elements to the video are the close up scenes. Which is really disappointing. The entire video is basically them dancing in the living room. Which is extremely boring. Berryz's Watashi no mirai no danna-sama was mostly dancing but they still managed to make it interesting. And the animals were a big distraction. And not only because it was a stupid concept, but also because they virtually did nothing but sit there. If you're going to add them to a video at least have them do something. Have the lion direct them. Show them the correct way to dance or show them to have more energy in the close up. Something like that would have made the video adorable. But instead the video is very basic and boring. But I've learned to expect that from Guardians 4 PVs.

Apparently the animals really were directing the video.

However there were no outburst by the animals.

It suddenly all makes sense why Guardians 4 is so great. It gets the production of both H!P and Lion PR.

KAT-TUN's new single, and their first single of 2010, is entitled Love yourself - Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki. It's also going to be the theme for Kame's new drama Yamato Nadeshiko﻿ Shinchi Henge. And today we have a preview for Love Yourself. But oddly enough we had a short preview for the b-side, D-Motion, almost a month ago. Although technically the concert rip to Love Yourself has been floating around for a while. But the quality was terrible and I couldn't really get a feel for the song. So the preview is new for me, and probably a lot of people out there.

At first listen I absolutely love the song. I was expecting this is be a sad song since it's translated to something like I hate you and I love you. (Don't quote me on the translation cause my Japanese sucks.) I was also expecting to not like the song at all, because I'm not the biggest KAT-TUN fan out there. I only like a handful of songs by them. But the music to it is really great. It has a great club sounding beat. It sounds a lot like something that would be played in America. That's probably a main reason I fine the song so appealing. It's nice to see that auto tuning has not only invaded Korea, but Japan too. That would probably annoy most people, but I've always loved auto tuning. I would honestly prefer if the song had a bit more of it. The only thing that disappoints me is that Koki's rap seems rather short. But I guess I'll have to wait for the PV to see it's longer. Since Koki's rapping is usually my favorite part of KAT-TUN's songs. The song also sounds like something Arashi would sing rather than KAT-TUN.

And to anyone out there who hasn't heard the D-Motion preview, here's KAT-TUN's DecoTomo DX commercial.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

After 18 long months Hey! Say! JUMP finally has a new single entitled Hitomi no Screen. Which will be the theme to Ryosuke's drama Hidarime Tantei EYE.

I'm an incredibly excited to see a new JUMP single finally. Especially because I became a JUMP fan during their single dry spell. I'm even more excited that the song is actually really good. I was actually expecting the song to be very slow and boring, much like Hidarime Tantei EYE itself. But the song has an amazing beat and chorus. And it extremely catchy like most Johnny's songs.But the initial excitement of a new single wear off easily when you listen to the line distribution. While Ryosuke is an amazing singer and undeniably popular I hate that he's the only one to get solos. The group has 10 members and only one person singing is just sad. Even C-ute isn't that bad. I understand it's for his drama and all, but that's really an excuse for him to monopolize the entire song. JUMP fans waited 18 months just for Yamada Ryosuke w/ J.U.M.P.Also, I might be hearing things but it also sounds like Daiki has a solo part too. But it's hard to tell on such a low quality recording.

And just a disclaimer, there is no official preview for Hitomo no Screen. So if you don't like concert rips I wouldn't suggest listening to this.

While I'm on the subject of JUMP I might as well talk about their other new song Romeo & Juliet. Which is pretty much old news to most JUMP fans. But I haven't been able to blog in a while so I feel like bringing it up anyway.

This song is pretty forgetful. I can see myself only remembering this song when they perform it at concerts. The lyrics are mediocre at best and the beat isn't anything special. Also the line distribution is pretty uneven. Only Ryosuke, Chinen, and Hikaru get lines. Which is unacceptable. But that doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is Chinen leading it. I can understand Hikaru and Ryosuke because they are great singers, but Chinen is terrible. And lately it seems like he's forcing his voice to be extra high and cute like it used to be. Which is annoying. But he should probably ask Koharu for lessons.However, they could also be leading it because they're the only members on School Kakumei. But we'd have to wait for a concert performance to find out.I don't know, I just really dislike Chinen. He looks too much like a girl and too much like a rabbit for my taste.

The new Shugo Chara themes also bring us PV and song previews for Buono's 10th single, Our Songs.

Buono does it again! I think it's humanly impossible for them to make a bad song. Even my least favorite songs by them are still great. The overall music is pretty simple and a Buono standard. Just some soft guitars in the background, which is completely fine. I really love how the chorus is so drastically different from the verse. It makes it seem like it's two different songs. I'm also in love when they're voices blend together like in the bokutachi wa part. Easily the best part of the song.

The PV is a littler plainer than I was expecting. Especially after the awesomeness that was Bravo Bravo. The simplicity of it reminds me of Take It Easy, while the dancing in front of a building scenes remind me of Honto no Jibun. But sadly there's not much else going on in it.

Their outfits are of course amazing. Buono are one of those groups who's closet I'd like to raid. In more ways than one. ;)

Shugo Chara has a new opening and ending themes, and with every new theme comes song previews. Like Guardian 4's new single Going On.

The song is overly happy and energetic much like their last 3 singles. And I of course instantly love the song. Guardians 4 can really do no wrong in my eyes. The music is standard girly anime music and the vocals are undeniably sweet, and I love every minute of it. I gotta say I love every Guardians 4 song. Practically every H!P single that gets touched by Shugo Chara ends up being amazing. Which makes me wish Shugo Chara would never end.

Since the song is used as an ending theme we also get a short preview of the PV.Words cannot describe how much I hate the new outfits. I know they had to be yellow because of the anime, but I hate the color. It does nothing for them. I also wonder what the next Guardians 4 color will be since they used the 4 main colors already. I'm guessing they'll most likely use lighter shades of each color. But I'm personally hoping that they use the same pink color Yuuka wore in the SCE PVs.

As expected the girls look really great. But I didn't really notice anyone else, I was too busy focusing on Aika. She looks incredible. I love that hairstyle on her.

Although the song is pretty much full of win the PV looks kind of boring.

But all Guardians 4 PVs are relatively boring so I'm not really worried. The Shugo Chara endings are misleading anyway. Remember how they made it seem like Party Time was going to be nothing but one big Party scene? And of course it wasn't.

I would just like to know what's going on in this picture.

It looks like they're having animal direct the video. If that's the case it reminds we way too much of Fall Out Boy's Thnks fr the Mmrs video, where they had monkeys directing it. XD

Fresh from finally getting my new headset and in turn having sound, I bring you my review of Morning Musume's 42nd single, Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai. It will be released on February 10th. It marks their first single of the new year as well as their first single without Koharu. And I still can't believe she's really gone. :/

What immediately jumps out about this single is the music. Which is obviously the first thing any first time listener would automatically notice. The music is good, I'm not overly in love with in but it's not absolutely terrible. It kind of has an old school feel to it. And it sounds almost like they blended Ryuusei Boy and Kimagure Princess and ended up with this. Which basically means it has Kimagure Princess's energetic feel, but it is also mostly dominated by Ryuusei's disco-esque feel and more toned down vocals. The sporadic Spanish sounded guitars also remind me of Iroppoi Jirettai in an odd way.

The line distribution is as disappointing as ever. Even though they are a member short they're following their current line distribution were only senior members get lines. Which would explain why Sayumi keeps getting solo lines when she doesn't entirely deserve them.

At some parts of the songs if you listen closely enough it almost sounded like the other members are singing. But I might just be hearing Ai and Reina shoving past the other members.

But seriously there are those times where you can hear a chunk of Aika here a piece of JunJun there. But that's no where near enough. I honestly can't hear LinLin in this song at all! If someone was to tell me she didn't participate in the single, I'd probably believe them. And it's really sad. Tsunku needs to realize Ai isn't going to be there forever and throw the other girls a bone.